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Reported by Star-Bulletin staff & wire
Thursday, September 7, 2000
Murdock completes Castle & Cooke deal
Businessman David Murdock has completed his acquisition of Castle & Cooke Inc. At a special shareholders' meeting yesterday, 95.6 percent of outstanding shares voted to approve the merger with Castle Acquisition Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Murdock's Flexi-Van Leasing Inc. Murdock is chairman and CEO of Castle & Cooke and of Dole Food Co.Dissenting shareholders will have the right to redeem holdings for $19.25 a share, without interest. Fewer than 79,225 shares of a total of about 17 million voted against the merger.
Castle & Cooke develops commercial and residential real estate in Hawaii, California, North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Florida. The company also owns two luxury resorts on Lanai.
Isle businesses more confident
More business owners now feel Hawaii's economy is looking brighter, according to the chief economist of the state's largest bank.A semi-annual survey found 55 percent of business owners expecting their companies to increase sales in the next 12 months and only 13 percent expecting sales to decrease, Paul Brewbaker of Bank of Hawaii said yesterday. "These are the most positive business confidence results we've seen since 1989," he said.
It is a sharp contrast to 1998 when less than 35 percent of the businessmen surveyed expected any improvement in sales, Brewbaker said.
The bank's business confidence survey was sent to 3,500 business people in Hawaii and the bank received responses from 450, he said.
Mortgage rates lower this week
The nationwide average interest rate on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages slipped to 7.94 percent this week, down from 7.96 percent last week, according to a survey released today by mortgage broker Freddie Mac. Fifteen-year mortgages dipped to an average 7.65 percent from 7.67 percent last week. One-year, adjustable-rate mortgages averaged an initial rate of 7.33 percent, up from last week's rate of 7.27 percent.